The Consequences of Falling
by allostaticroad
Summary: A heartbreaking story of the nightmare world Justin & Alex find themselves trapped in when they fall to their deaths trying to reach the stone of dreams. Set in the time of the movie. JALEX.
1. The Consequences of Falling

**_A/N_ - This is set after the cave scene in the movie where they find the stone of dreams. It might not all make perfect sense at first but I promise it will piece together :)**

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****Prologue – The Consequences of Falling**

_**Justin**_

Heaven isn't a light place. It isn't full of solid cloud floors and painted blue skies.

Heaven is dark. The ground can disappear beneath you and skies can turn blood red.

Heaven isn't a peaceful place. Your ears aren't blessed with angelic harmonies ringing down from on high, or small harps being played by delicate beings in light robes.

Heaven is loud, heaven is confronting. Screams can pierce your ears, but the loudest scream of all is the silence. Silence in heaven doesn't bring calm, it brings shadows and fears.

The silence in heaven is deafening, it rings in your head and shakes the bones in your body.

For me heaven is a nightmare. For me heaven is hell.

When the sun is up the world is in madness, people everywhere rushing, moving, walking, running, desperate to do everything before the sun goes down. You can never tell who is watching you in the light, and you never know who to trust.

_Frantic by day, silent by nightfall._

When the sun goes down the people hide, there is no sound…only the footsteps that chase you if you're not behind closed doors.

Heaven is a whirlwind of confusion.

They all tell you this is heaven but you have to wonder – _is this hell? _Was I sent here because of something I did? Something I _felt_?

Everyone knows the forbidden fruit is the kind we crave the most…but most don't crave the fruit of their own family tree.

If I was sent here for wishing I could taste the fruit that fell from the same tree and landed next to me, then go ahead and punish me. But if I am here because that fruit belonged to me, and I was never meant for that tree, then you can stick your morality.

_Morality._ Useless, _pointless_ on a topic like this. If you want to punish me take your morality somewhere else, somewhere that wants to thrive in hypocrisy.

Eve was made from Adam, when Adam was 130 he had his first son, and in the next 800 years he had more children. His children had children, their children had children. As for Noah, he was only allowed his family on the arc – so where did the human race go from there?

The religious people can bite me if incest is wrong.

As for science, there's no proof of how our population grew from the start, but I'm willing to bet there wasn't a convenient amount of non-related apes in the beginning. In-breeding had to occur somewhere in our cursed heritage. It all started somewhere, even if it started in 'sin'.

I am trapped here in a nightmare with thousands, if not millions, of other foolish souls, for whatever reason they were sent here.

Even if I am alone I have to find my way out. _There is always a way out._

If I ever taught her anything in my life, it was that there is always a way to fix the mess that she created, so maybe I can find my way out of this mess I gave myself.

Dangerous? Maybe, but can you die when you're already dead? It doesn't matter. I would die a thousand times over to find Alex, no matter the cost. _She has to be somewhere._

But not here, she could never be here. She could never have felt…never.

In this messed up world I've landed myself in I will try to fight my way out and find a place to call home again, _I have to try._ Even if in the end I just have to accept my fate…

These are the consequences of falling, and I fell far.

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**A/N - I hope that interested you somehow and wasn't too confusing, please keep reading as I update I promise it will unfold well :) I will love you for reviewing!**


	2. How An Angel Fell

**_A/N - _This chapter is flashbacks of Justin and his feelings for Alex, I hope it's not confusing! I really want this fanfic to be special so please review any constructive critisicm you may have!**

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**Chapter One – How an Angel Fell**

_**Justin**_

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**_Autumn - 1998

"Justin, don't let me fall!"

We were young, I was seven and she was five. It was just your average day in the park, I was holding her hand on the playground as she tried to walk the wrong way up the slide.

"You're going the wrong way anyway! How many times do I have to tell you? You slide _down_ the slide, you don't walk _up_ it." Even as a seven year old I was bossy and opinionated. I waved both my arms around in frustration wanting to prove my point and this caused her to slip and squeal.

"Justin!" I caught her hand again and she steadied her feet, "I told you not to let me fall!" she pouted at me.

"I'm sorry Alex! You're okay. I've got you, _I won't let you fall_." I squeezed her hand and smiled. A little girl with rosy cheeks, black curls and scraped knees yet she was still always the most beautiful thing in the world to me, _but_ _I didn't know then._

"But I just _did_ fall!" she pouted again, stomping her foot. Her eyes widened as she realized she almost made herself slip again.

"But you _didn't_ fall!" I decided if she was going to play stubborn then I would play stubborn back, but then I looked into her big brown eyes and they were full of sadness – I caved.

"Alex, it's okay. If you ever fall I will catch you, every time." I squeezed her hand and smiled again, her eyes brightened.

"YAY!" She was beaming and before I knew it she had jumped off the edge of the slide and was hugging me tightly around my neck. The hug surprised me and I fell backwards onto the tanbark, she giggled.

"What happened to catching me? Silly!" she stuck out her tongue at me.

"Hey that's not fair! You attacked me!"

"I did NOT! I was hugging you!"

"Tackling is not hugging! Cheater!"

"It _is_! I'll tell mom."

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Winter – 2001

"Mooooom! Justin stole my pencils!"

She was eight now and growing up fast. I was ten, finally "double digits". It was pouring rain on Waverly Place and the three of us were stuck inside coloring.

"Justin, give Alex her pencils back." My mother said to me.

"I didn't take them!" I pouted at her - it'sgenetic, runs in the family.

"Yes you DID!" Alex was starting to get mad now, she would have scared the hell out of Max but to me it was always adorable somehow.

Before our mom could break up the fight a five year old Max distracted her, "Mommy I want a sammich!"

"Honey we own a sandwich shop, just go downstairs and ask your daddy to make you one."

"But I want _you_ to make it mommy! Daddy doesn't do it as good." He was tugging on the corner of her shirt and looking up at her. Mom always had a soft spot for Max, she couldn't resist him.

"Alright Maxie, what do you want on it?" She picked him up and stumbled towards the door a little before putting him back down, "Gosh you're getting big Max! Come on." She took his hand but didn't forget to pause and add "You two behave yourself for ten minutes while I'm downstairs, okay?" before heading down to the substation. I remember Max's request of a tuna, peanut butter and egg sandwich being the last thing I heard and scrunching up my nose at the thought.

Now it was just Alex and me alone in the living room, and I had been so distracted by Max and Mom that I didn't notice the whole time Alex had been destroying all my drawings with a red marker.

"ALEX! That's no fair!" I ripped the paper away from her and took the pen out of her hand. She scowled at me dangerously.

"You stole MY pencils." Her scowl turned into a stubborn pout and she crossed her arms, her typical attitude obvious even when she was eight.

"This isn't a pencil it's a red marker!" I smiled to myself, thinking I was cool because I was older and much better at the sarcastic teasing game we would come to know so well.

"Not that! My pencils! You stole them, I know you did! I can't find them _anywhere_ and you have a whole tin right next to you!" She crossed her legs too and sunk down into the couch.

I let out a wise-beyond-my-years sigh, those were _my_ pencils and not hers. "Alex these are mine, see?" I showed her the pencils, each typically labeled individually with Justin Russo in permanent marker.

"But….but..." her voice was soft now and she seemed so sad and small I had just wanted to hug her, "Where are mine then?"

"Did you check Max's room?"

"No…"

"Well why don't you check then? I'll look with you, we'll search the whole house! Don't worry Alex we'll find your pencils." I leant a few inches away from her face and made her lift her gaze to mine so she could see me smiling, she smiled too.

"Thank you Justin!" She leapt off the couch enthusiastically.

We searched every room for her pencils that day, but neither she nor I could find them. Defeated, we both slumped back onto the sofa. I looked over at her shocked to see she was crying.

"Alex! What's wrong?" Looking back now I realize it was probably a dumb question, but I was ten.

"I…I…I want to go to the park but it's raining and h-horrible and I didn't w-want to...color and-d now I've l-lost my pencils!" Poor little Alex was sitting there on the sofa bawling her eyes out because she had lost a tin of pencils and it broke my heart, _but I didn't know then._

"It's okay Alex, you can have my pencils." I picked up my pencil tin and held it out to her, but this only made her cry more. Most brothers would probably panic at this point, a crying little sister on their hands and the colored pencils wouldn't fix it? But I always knew how to make her feel better somehow.

"Hey, hey there," I cooed softly to her and wrapped my arms around her, "It's okay, I'm here, it's gonna be okay." I squeezed her tightly.

For half an hour I sat there hugging until she stopped crying and she eventually fell asleep. She felt so small in my arms, but she also felt so right.

Alex came down with a small fever and a big cold the next day. Mom said that's probably why she was crying so much over the pencils, her body was exhausted from trying to fight off the cold, and apparently we all know when little kids are tired they cry easily.

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Summer – 2005

"Ugh, Justin would you quit it? I'm trying to do mischievous unsupervised magic here."

Older and more sarcastic, Alex at twelve and me at fourteen. She had started pretending she didn't like me about 5 months earlier when she realized she was almost a teenager and that boys "wouldn't think a girl who was friends with her brother was cool". I pretended this was okay with me and acted like I didn't like her either.

I was bossier, more intent on laying down the rules. She was more…evil, intent on breaking them.

"No! You're going to get into trouble or hurt and I'm going to get blamed!" We were in the lair, I had stolen her wand and she was busy trying to get it off me.

"I don't care! GIVE ME MY WAND! God don't you have a girlfriend you should be annoying instead, dork?" The insults were a recent thing; she had only started calling me names in the past month. I always insulted back so she wouldn't know I cared.

She had a point though, 14 years old and I hadn't even had a crush on a girl yet. 14 years of age and I_ still didn't know_. I was smart, but man was I slow.

Alex snatched the wand out of my hand and pointed it at the wall readying herself for the spell she was dying to try, "_Brick by boring brick, make this wall an oil slick!"_

BOOM!

A ripple of energy burst out from the wall and knocked Alex and I back onto the couch. God knows what spell she was _trying_ to do, but that was _not_ it.

"Look what you did! You could have gotten us both seriously hurt! What if this sofa wasn't here?" My anger was short lived though, as she rolled her eyes at me I realized we were laying face to face on the couch. She was on top of me and all I could do was stare right into her beautiful eyes. The closest – if not _too_ close – a brother should ever get to his sister and I wanted to close the gap.

That's when I knew. _I finally knew._ I was in love with her, and I always had been.

She stared at me quiet and breathless for a second and just for a split second I thought she felt it too, but then as if she had just forgotten herself for a second she laughed sarcastically, "Chill dude, we're fine. Don't know why that spell didn't work though, euck." She got up off me and the moment her body stopped touching mine all it wanted was for her to be close again, just to touch her.

I panicked, naturally. What else would I do in a situation where I couldn't understand what was happening? Well, besides from talk really slowly.

"Uh, I have to go!" I sped out of there like a lightning bolt and ran to my room diving for my bed immediately.

I finally understood everything. Why the girls at school never seemed good enough, why it hurt so much when she started to push me away, maybe even why I was always so creeped out by her best friend Harper having a crush on me all these years.

I loved her. I _loved_ her. I was _in_ love with Alex.

It never sounded any better no matter how I phrased it, no matter what I emphasized it excited and terrified something deep inside of me every time.

The hardest thing to understand was how it took me so long to realize. Fourteen years, it had taken me _fourteen years_ to realize I was in love with my sister.

Looking back on everything I realized I had always been like this in one way or another. It had grown as I had grown and changed as we had changed, but she was never _just_ a sister to me.

I buried my face in my pillow and decided to ignore it, there was nothing else I could do. Troubled and confused I fell asleep.

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_Loving her is a magic carpet ride._

"Wow, with you it's easy! Curl left, lean right, go left."

With the starry night sky all around us and her sitting so close to me in her pajamas I wanted nothing more than to put my arm around her and hold her. It was such a romantic setting…

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Loving her is living with myself._

"That was fun! What a nice break from chocolate-OOH chocolate sounds good right now!"

Playing endless pranks on her to get even was the only way I could distract myself from the hurt I felt every time she was cold towards me. A pocket elf in her purse, that should have taught her not to like other boys. Especially Riley with his stupid hair straight one day and curly the next.

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Loving her is that moment of light in amongst the dark._

"He may be dorky and annoying but he's fun and gullible to pull pranks on and he's my brother I need him back!"

Her words made my heart swell; it was like a weight was finally lifted off my shoulders – only for an instant, but enough to make pretending so much easier.

"Wahh I need my brother back! I need my brother back where is he? Wahhh!"

A mini pillow fight and wrestle on the couch to make everything seem like old times, like it should be. Our laughter chimed in tune together once again.

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Loving her is lying to the world._

"You make me a better wizard!"

I wasn't lying, she _did_ make me a better wizard, she does. But I was saving her powers because I loved her so much I couldn't live with myself if I let her life be ruined like that.

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Loving her is trying to forget._

A goth, a werewolf, a centaur, a vampire. I felt something for all of them, but 'something' wasn't love. The girlfriends made it easier to forget about my feelings for her and ignore them. They made it easier to tell myself I would one day feel something for someone who wasn't my sister, but they never made the feelings go away.

The only one I ever really loved was Juliet, but in some twisted way I loved her more like a sister than I had ever done so for Alex. Juliet made me feel something amazing, and if it weren't for Alex I probably would have fallen for her completely and taken her to the alter one day…but it wasn't strong enough to make me forget her.

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Loving her is jealousy._

A baseball player, a mannequin, a criminal, and a werewolf for irony.

Seeing her happy was a knife through my gut every time. Even when she kissed a random guy in the hallway it shattered my world.

And so cue the sarcastic, snarky and even mean quips I used to cover up my own hurt.

The summer vacation to the resort where my parents met was probably the hardest, strangest, toughest and best few days of my life. They were also the last.

As usual Alex caused a huge problem via magic and she and I had to fix it, and what I learnt was the bigger the problem the more bonding time there was for the two of us.

We were fighting to save our lives and I wasn't sure whether it was the seriousness of the matter or some hidden feelings but the insult exchange between us had never been lower. As the time passed I could almost feel both of us forgetting slowly who we were…but it seemed the more we forgot the closer we became. I didn't know whether she was feeling it too but there were times where I was almost certain I could see something more in her eyes.

The spell was messing with our memories, we were forgetting things, I was starting to forget Alex was my sister and I could almost swear she was starting to forget I was her brother.

The night by the campfire was the hardest; I could barely even remember why I had hidden my feelings all these years. In the romantic light of the fire's glow you might have been able to cut the sexual tension with a knife. We became so close through the peril of our situation, and I became so reckless.

For a single moment I almost dropped my guard, I almost leant in and kissed her. My _sister_.

No matter what I had thought I'd seen in her eyes I was wrong, the spell was playing tricks on my mind and my memory. I pushed all the thoughts of hope out of my head and focused back on the truth: she was forbidden.

The next day was the day that changed everything forever. I warned her it was too dangerous, I was terrified for her, but the stone of dreams was stuck and she was right – we didn't have a choice.

As I heard her scream and call my name I turned to see her slipping, failing to hold onto the edge of the cavern she seemed doomed to fall into. I reached her at what seemed just in time with my heartbeat pounding in my ears,

"I've got you, _I won't let you fall!_" I started to hoist her up but it was too late, her hand was too slippery and she fell.

"JUSTIN!"

The rest was all a blur, I don't know whether my feet slipped or I if threw myself after her but the last thing I remember in that world was me falling after her into the darkness.

My last words in that realm were yelled as loud as I could, "I have always loved you Alex!" in hope that she would hear me.

I let her fall, and then I fell myself just like I fell for her all those years ago. Now these are the consequences of falling…

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**_A/N -_Ahh, I hope you're liking it so far, this story makes me really nervous! Please give me feedback :)**

**I'll update the next chapter ASAP, I know I'm shaky with fast updating but I'll try!  
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